Proper stocking rates make growing-season burns possible

While the traditional burning season for the Southern Great Plains goes from December to April, more and more land managers are conducting prescribed burns during the growing season in order to achieve their pasture management and forage goals. Regardless of the burn season, a major goal of prescribed burning is to control brush, improve wildlife habitat and improve forage quality for livestock. A crucial factor for the success of growing-season burns is the stocking rate of livestock grazing the land, because of its effect on the fine fuel available. Proper livestock stocking rate is the most important management decision a manager can make. It impacts not only livestock production, operation economics and wildlife habitat, but also a land manager’s ability to use the important ecological process of prescribed burning. –Noble Research Institute Read more…